Mighty Aphrodite

An older man befriends a kindhearted prostitute

A Manhattan scriptwriter (Woody Allen) meets the young mother of his adopted boy, a hooker (Mira Sorvino), and tries to help her situation. Meanwhile, his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) is caught up in her ambitious work as a curator of art galleries, not to mention the serious flirting of a colleague (Peter Weller). A Greek chorus occasionally chimes in (F. Murray Abraham, etc.), linking the story to that of Oedipus.

“Mighty Aphrodite” (1995) is a quirky comedy set in Manhattan, which is unsurprising with Woody at the helm. The heart of the plot, described in my title blurb above, is reminiscent of “Hardcore” (1979) minus the gravity.

Both Helena and Mira were in their prime and look great in totally opposite ways. The flick is amusing, touching and ironic. I enjoyed the audacious Greek chorus element, something few filmmakers could pull off, but Woody does so effortlessly.

The movie runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in Manhattan with the Greek chorus scenes done at Teatro Greco on Sicily, Italy.

GRADE: B

To minimise the inconvenience to their daily lives, a married couple adopt a baby from birth, but by the time he is five the fizz has rather gone out of their marriage. He's a sports journalist and is a bit bored with her (Helena Bonham Carter) more "arty" friends whom she knows from her all-consuming work in her gallery. When their adopted son "Max" starts to show signs that ne might just be some sort of a prodigy, dad "Lenny" (Woody Allen) decides that he wants to try to track down the birth mother. Imagine his disappointment when he discovers that it's "Linda" (Mira Sorvino). She's an expensive hooker with hopeless aspirations to get on the stage and as thick as two short planks into the bargain. He decides that maybe he can help her out of her wicked ways, so tries to set her up with one of his pals so she can better conform to his own expectations of the parent of this boy genius. All the while, "Lenny" (and the audience) is being informed and guided by an ensemble of artistes from an ancient greek chorus who offer him sagely words of wisdom and prophecy which he invariably chooses to disregard - and so what ensues can at times resemble a work that might just have made Aeschylus proud. Allen always just seems the same to me, and here is no different, but Sorvino really does deliver the goods as the well-meaning woman who has an honesty streak a mile wide. Of course, there's the obligatory age gap between the two, and between him and his wife (she's thirty years his junior) which again serves to fuel the frustrations of a man who seems determined never to be satisfied - but hey, isn't that true of most Woody Allen films. There is some wit from the observational script but it's really all down to the comically potent artistes delivering their warnings of woe and joy and to a superbly engaging Sorvino to make this work. They do.